From Minnie's Ditch To John's Ditching

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Now before anyone says anything about the view being uglified, the parked Winnebagos will hide all the meters.

Parking meters could dot the coastline in the future along Ocean View Boulevard in Pacific Grove.

Last week’s review of cost-cutting and revenue-raising measures by the Pacific Grove City Council omitted adding more parking meters as a means of making money, but the council instructed its staff to prepare the groundwork for permits from the state’s Coastal Commission.

James Becklenberg, city director of management and budget, suggested in December that Pacific Grove could reap an additional $495,000 by installing parking meters on Central Avenue, Ocean View Boulevard, Lovers Point and city parking lots in the downtown area.

The first call described a woman belly dancing along the right side of the road at 3:07 p.m. A minute later, drivers reported that she was using a light pole as a dancing prop and then a highway sign for a pole dance.

It wasn’t until she ran across the interstate that things got nasty, CHP officer Oscar Johnson said. The woman in a black halter top and black pants began screaming obscenities at drivers who nearly hit her as she dangerously shimmied across the highway, he said.

The incident apparently stemmed from a long and emotional council meeting Wednesday night as city officials reviewed possible budget cuts and heard several hours of public testimony by citizens who spoke against reductions in different city departments — police, fire, library, museum and public works.

The next evening city officials and chamber members gathered at the Fandango restaurant near City Hall to celebrate the city’s joining the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

During the event, words were exchanged between Davis and businesswoman Melody Stein, who had spoken at the council meeting against reductions in the police budget, according to several witnesses.

Davis allegedly touched Stein on the arm, then jostled her as he brushed past her to leave the room.

A mysterious asphalt-like substance washed up on Monterey Peninsula beaches Monday night, local firefighters reported, and the Coast Guard believes it may be the same material that popped up on San Francisco Bay Area beaches earlier in the day.

Earlier on Monday, beaches in Pacifica and at Moss Beach’s Fitzgerald Marine Reserve were closed when many tar-like balls, ranging from the size of a quarter to the width of a hubcap, washed up along the coast, according to San Mateo County officials.

The source of the material, first thought to be remnants of the Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco Bay, became more of a mystery as the day wore on and the Coast Guard received reports of thick, coagulated “patties” washing up on beaches farther south.

Police can spend hours working a crash at the expense of the village’s taxpayers, Police Chief Dave Willoughby said, even though none of its 2,483 residents caused the problem.

Now New Richmond and a growing number of cash-strapped communities large and small are billing at-fault out-of-town drivers and their insurance companies to recoup some of the cost of responding to and clearing accidents outside drivers cause.

Ocala, Fla., a community of 55,000, approved an ordinance last Tuesday that aims to collect more than $350,000 in annual reimbursements for police services. Larger cities, including Tampa and Boston, have expressed interest, according to Regina Moore, president of Dayton, Ohio-based Cost Recovery Corp., a company that helps communities bill accident-causers for police time.

The Weakly takes a look at the perceived state of the city’s business. Mentions this website and the bulletin board at pacificgrove.com! But only talks about the sleepy downtown and it’s struggling storefronts. Does anyone acknowledge the existence of all the businesses that are on Forest Hill or Sunset Drive? They are the ones that are there for the residents or other businesses, tourists don’t matter there. The parking lots are filled. The stores for the most part have been there for more than a year. How do they all stay in business with no Chamber Of Commerce ads or traffic shaping signs?

Push for a business that locals will like, and visitors will want to be a part of it. Focus on tourists and the locals will avoid you.

But while the mayor dreams of using that water for affordable housing, Ammar is gung-ho for new hotels. Twice a week, he and his staff call each of PG’s 30 inns and log their occupancy rates. The state-run Asilomar Conference Center, with a third of the city’s rooms, keeps about 83 percent of them filled. The rest average a respectable 61 percent occupancy, Ammar says. As a whole, PG’s hotels sell out 42 weekends per year.

Attracted by the town’s quaint beauty and slow pace, King moved her business to PG a decade ago. But in recent years she’s found city planners to be “difficult” and the Chamber of Commerce too focused on tourism – a sentiment she says her neighboring business owners share. “I think they all have the same concerns and are disgruntled by the same issues,” she says. “We don’t feel supported by the city or the chamber at all.”

Critics are assailing city leaders for proposing new taxes, discussing parking meters, laying off staff, thinning the library and museum budgets, and moving to consolidate the public safety departments. (For a sampling of emotions, check out PG blogs lighthouseavenue.com and pacificgrove.com.)

At 5:50 a.m., police responded to the 400 block of Central Avenue after a vehicle ran into a telephone pole. Police said the woman driver apparently ran into the pole intentionally because she was despondent over domestic issues. She was taken to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula for evaluation.

Pacific Grove Police arrived at a house on the 200 block on Congress Ave. to reports of loud music and trespassing of a vacant house. The officers arrived to find Steve Merrick, 48, intoxicated and threatening the officers. When Merrick refused to cooperate with the officers, a judgment call was made to use pepper spray and a taser to help subdue him, both of which were said to be ineffective.